Construction is underway on the Robert Day Sciences Center, which will foster transparent and dynamic interaction between faculty, staff, and experts, as well as across disciplines and applied research and learning opportunities. Designed by renowned architects of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, the Robert Day Sciences Center will make the scientific process visible to students through a stunning, transparent design offering views into classrooms and research spaces from a soaring central atrium at all levels.

At a current estimate of 142,000 square feet and LEED Gold certified, the Center will:

• Facilitate collaboration; 
• Expand research opportunities; 
• Engage disciplines beyond the natural sciences and promote interdisciplinarity; 
• Create adaptable and reconfigurable spaces;
• Facilitate student-centric and hands-on learning environments; and 
• Emphasize the integration of computation and data analytics in the sciences.

The current “hashtag” design—a metaphor for the way in which the College is reorienting science education—calls for inspiration, filled with examples of historical breakthroughs and student research. Each individual volume is expressed as a triangulated truss facade on the long edges and a floor to ceiling glass facade on the short sides. The continual rotation of each floor creates a structural logic of large-scale girders resting on top of one another and forms a sky lit, vertical atrium space at the heart of the building. The stacking logic results in a series of indoor terraces overlooking the atrium on all floors, as well as eight outdoor terraces offering sweeping views of the mountains in the north.